Resources: AHCJ Publications

Books

This guide will help journalists analyze and write about health and medical research studies. It offers advice on recognizing and reporting the problems, limitations and backstory of a study, as well as publication biases in medical journals and it includes 10 questions you should answer to produce a meaningful and appropriately skeptical report. We hope this guide, supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, will be a road map to help you do a better job of explaining research results for your audience.

Chapters deal with the hierarchy of evidence, putting types of research into context, scrutinizing the quality of evidence, phases of clinical trials, explaining risk, embargoes, pitfalls of news from scientific meetings, criteria for judging your story and more. The guide links to online resources throughout.

With an aging populace in the United States, this reporting guide gives a head start to journalists who want to pursue stories about one of the most vulnerable populations – nursing home residents. Supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, this guide offers advice about Web sites, datasets, research and other resources.

After reading this book, journalists can have more confidence in deciphering nursing home inspection reports, interviewing advocacy groups on all sides of an issue, locating key data, and more. The book includes story examples and ideas.

The latest guide, supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, walks reporters through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Web site and highlights data resources. It is a starting place for finding national or state data and surveys when writing health stories. A Fast Stats section has clickable links to pages about specific diseases, conditions or datasets for reporters on deadline. For those who want to learn more, there are step-by-step instructions with examples, story ideas and tips from published stories that used CDC statistics.

The prospect of covering such a broad, engaging and important topic as obesity can be overwhelming. This guide, supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, is designed to help journalists cover a wide range of stories, whether writing on deadline or researching a multipart series. It offers assistance on calculating body mass index, finding obesity statistics on the state level, gauging the quality of school district wellness policies, finding innovative school nutrition policies and much more. Supplementary material can be found on this page.

This 200-page, large-format reporting guide was supported by a grant from The California Endowment and serves as a tool for understanding the increasing diversity of the audiences we serve. It is meant to expand your knowledge of what culture, ethnicity, health and well-being mean to people from a variety of backgrounds. The book is available online for AHCJ members or a hard copy can be requested.

AHCJ launched an interactive e-class as the online companion to "Covering Health in a Multicultural Society." Enroll in the class and take part in discussion forums and take short quizzes to test your knowledge. Complete the e-class, and you can download or print a certificate of completion. The course is a resource for understanding the increasing diversity of the audiences AHCJ members serve.

This guide points reporters to Web tools that interpret government data on health care quality and takes them step by step through the process of using these tools. Drawing on a pool of millions of Medicare patients and treatments at thousands of hospitals, the data offer comparisons that will inspire better reporting and better coverage of your community hospitals. The slim guide, supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, is available online to AHCJ members.

This guide is intended to improve the quality, accuracy and visibility of health care reporting. It is designed to help journalists cover this critical issue in an informed, systematic way. It provides crucial context and vital data to make it useful as a quick reference when doing breaking news stories or as a thoughtful, provocative starting point when working on long-range stories. This book is available online to members and a hard copy can be requested.

• Health journalists learn latest in the field in Silicon Valley• Infant mortality: Covering causes, solutions in South Carolina• Verghese offers commentary on healing, even when he can’t cure• Panelists urge journalists to report on the evidence that vaccines save lives• Reporters get the inside story on reader-supported journalism• Doctor says media coverage of Ebola ‘fanned the hysteria’• New AHCJ board seated for 2015-16• Haelle, Heavey take over coverage of studies, disparities, social determinants• Print, radio reporters team up to expose Idaho’s fraying mental health system• Rural health care: Covering the divide and distance• Reporting on the confusion over medical tests and consequences• Local chapter updates• Member news

• AHCJ membership guidelines updated, made more inclusive• New fellowship program encourages examination of health care systems• Patient safety, reform, H1N1 top annual conference agenda• Uncovering conflicts of interest in medicine, research • Covering a complex story for the long haul• Committee focuses on PIO issues

AHCJ board elects two interim officers, including a new president and board member

Information about upcoming conference in Atlanta in March

Getting your camera past the waiting room

Helpful web sites for health care journalists

'Firestone' Memorial Medical Center?

Life after fellowships: Is a soft-landing possible?

Update on Dr. Swango

Posted: 11/01/00

Other Publications

Training Module: Covering Hospitals - Preview Edition

This innovative simulation will hone your critical-thinking skills and give you the beat-specific knowledge needed to cover the hospitals in your community. You will be a rookie health beat reporter, investigating local hospitals on deadline, working with your editor to find the focus of your story and craft the lead. You'll tap into the same tools that you'll use on the job, and you'll have a virtual "mentor" to walk you through the maze of reports, statistics and sources. As the simulation progresses, you'll uncover additional sources, and the story you thought was unfolding might take unexpected turns.